Crossing the border was surprisingly easy. Even the part we heard the most horror stories about (not getting your FMM form stamped, and then getting beyond vehicle inspection and having issues getting back to the correct building to get it stamped) was quite simple since we were prepared. We arrived at the border at about 6:30am and were through all the pieces in 15 minutes. All of the officers were incredibly courteous and friendly.
From there, we spent the better part of the day taking Hwy 5 down. It’s obviously brand new. Very well paved and with stunning views of coves in the Baja from San Felipe south. We stopped and had a microwaved lunch of leftover pasta. The food was meh, but the view was amazing! (I had really planned for tacos in some town this day…but our timing was just all wrong to make that happen.)
The 5 dumps into Hwy 1, and then you get worse (but still good) pavement and more traffic. All in all, an uneventful day. We arrived in Guerrero Negro in the afternoon, and stayed here overnight. So much of the town was shut down, presumably due to COVID, so it’s hard to get much of a feel for the town. It felt like a place that was 90% focused on catering to people driving up and down the peninsula—it’s a popular stopping point mid-way through, and 10% focused on tours to see whales.
We woke the next morning to temperatures in the high 40’s, thick fog and my hair looking like a blonde explosion. Welcome to Mexico.
The Guerrero Negro to Loreto leg of the drive was unrelenting. Probably not too bad in a car, but in a heavily weighted van you always had to be aware if the undulating speed limit was for no apparent reason, or if the highway designers had put an insanely steep downhill section ahead. There was a lot of mountain crossing going on, so a lot of reason to drive with a lot of care. Nothing unsafe, just tiring.
And just when we were arriving into Santa Rosalía just at the right time of day to get tacos for lunch (finally!), we got to a roadblock. Workers in town were protesting due to a pay dispute, and had closed the highway. They said they would open it for 10 minutes every two hours…and rumor had it we had just missed the previous opening.
It could have been worse, we were in 75 degree weather and 5 feet from the beach, but not how we planned to spend our time. Mr Snacks brilliantly decided to walk across the protest area (several people were doing it, and it does not seem akin to crossing a protest line in the US) and get us some tacos! So, our first taco lunch in Mexico was in the van while waiting for protesters to clear the road. Fortunately, we only had to wait a total of 50 minutes and we were on our way.
We stayed in Loreto for a few days, and had the town mostly to ourselves. I am amazed at how much the town emphasizes the use of masks during this COVID time—people even wore them walking their dogs on isolated parts of the beach! While I have felt our home state and counties have good compliance with the mask request, people here seem to do even more.
We finally got into a seafood groove in Loreto. Two amazing meals with fresh caught seafood. One amazing shrimp taco place (El Caloron) and one nice dinner place where we had shrimp and scallops in butter and guajillo chiles (Playa Blanca). I have never tasted sweeter shrimp!
One more short day of driving and we arrived in La Ventana for 3 days of kiteboarding lessons. As those of you who follow the Instagram know, that’s where things went off the rails and I ended up in the hospital for a few days. More on that in the next post.